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Canada’s Beukeboom: ‘If we play our game, we’re going to come out on top’
By Finn Morton reporting from Bristol
Tyson Beukeboom expects New Zealand to “throw the whole kitchen sink” at Canada when the rival sides battle it out for a spot in the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup final, but the 81-Test veteran remains confident the Maple Leafs have what it takes to win.
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Canada are hoping to qualify for what would be their second-ever Women’s Rugby World Cup decider, having lost the final to England 21-9 at the 2014 tournament. France finished third, while New Zealand placed fifth after a shock loss to Ireland in pool play.
Ahead of the 2025 World Cup, many considered the Red Roses strong favourites to take out the sport’s top prize on home soil. England’s incredible unbeaten streak speaks for itself, having won their last 31 Tests on the bounce, but this World Cup is far from a one-horse race.
France poses an intriguing challenge for the Red Roses in the second semi-final, having lost to the World Cup hosts by just one point in this year’s Six Nations. Canada and New Zealand will both go into their showdown with a wealth of confidence as well.
The Black Ferns are the defending World Cup champions and they’ve played an exciting brand of rugby, but the Canadians pose a tough Test. Canada beat the Black Ferns on New Zealand soil for the first time last year, and the two sides drew 27-all in Christchurch four months ago.
“The rest of the world might have an opinion on where we stand but our record against them in the last year and a half has been pretty successful on our side,”
“We’re going into this game with confidence knowing that we can capitalise on the opportunities we’re gonna get from the, and we can really challenge them and push them. If we play our game, we’re going to come out on top.
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“We really focused on controlling the controllables and one of the things that we can control is the tempo of the game, and so far no one’s been able to compete with that and nobody’s been able to keep up with our tempo when we put that down.
“If we can really focus on attacking the opportunities that we’re given and keeping that tempo for the 80 minutes, nobody can compete with us. That’s our goal is just maintain that.”
Braxton Sorensen-McGee and Jorja Miller have been among the standouts for the Black Ferns during their run to the final four, which included a tough quarter-final win over the Springbok Women, who had 80 per cent of possession during the first half in Exeter.
Canada are coming off their strong start to match in this World Cup, having blitzed Australia in a one-sided first-half. Asia Hogan-Rochester opened the scoring inside the first two minutes, before the Maple Leafs ran away with a convincing 46-5 at Ashton Gate.
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Sophie de Goede received Player of the Match honours after starring in that fixture – the second time the goal-kicking lock has received that award at this World Cup. De Goede was also particularly impressive in Canada’s pool stage win over Wales.
Along with Horgan-Rochester and de Goede, there were another four try-scorers in Canada’s 41-point win. Alysha Corrigan crossed for a double, while the trio of McKinley Hunt, Fabiola Forteza and Karen Paquin also added five points to the team’s commanding score.
“It was pretty epic. We came out strong, we came out strong and fast and that’s the best start that we’ve had to a game in the World Cup so far,” Beukeboom reflected.
“Being able to put that down and essentially put the game away in the first half really made our lives easy.
“Carrying that momentum and building it into the New Zealand game, just building confidence and being really ready and firing going into that game is really exciting.”